1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to devices, systems, and processes useful as bone plates, and more specifically to improvements in such plates fitted with screw locks.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. D592,946 relates to a design of a rotatable lock for the bone screws used to hold bone plates to a bone, such as anterior cervical plates used in spinal surgeries. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0091206, “Bone Plate”, describes similar bone plates including rotatable screw locks. The entirety of each of these documents is incorporated by reference herein.
While the bone plates described in these patent documents perform well, in some circumstances the bone screws can back out of the bone to such an extent that the bone screw lock, which had been rotated over the head of the bone screw, is flexed upwards. Such flexing can cause damage to the bone screw lock, risking fracture of the lock. In addition, one difficulty that can arise with the use of such rotatable bone screw locks is that the practitioner does not have a way of knowing when the lock has been rotated the correct amount to adequately block the underlying bone screw from backing out, other than mere visual inspection.
There remains a need for improvements in bone screw locks which can address these and other issues.